Taroko Gorge Marathon (21km)

What a race on the most beautiful and scenic place in Taiwan (Hualien on the east coast). Having did some read up before the race I felt it is not an event for a PB, the reason been an uphill route for the first half of the half marathon (followed by a u-turn to go down hill) which will probably leave me too tired to make up for even for the second half down hill route.

Having reached Taiwan (Taipei) 2 days before the race, settled down and took a train to Hualien the following day for race pack collection. On race day I woke up at 4am, oops... I was late, but managed to meet up with the rest of the Safra guys at about 4:15am to take the shuttle train from Hualien and followed by shuttle bus and finally reaches the race site at about 5am. Having settled down and deposited my belongings I had a 30mins nap before headed off to the starting line.

The race started off at about 7am on a cold windy morning of around 17 Degree Celsius, it was drizzling for days, but somehow it stops just in time just before the race starts. But too bad my garmin watch was not working (could not detect satellite signals), well anyway no time for that and I just have to get on with my run while at the same time try to feel the right pace.

The first 5 - 6 km was great as I was probably running at an average of slightly less then 5:00min/km pace, soon came a couple of short up and down slopes which I felt I coped well with and so far so good, the cold temperature certainly helps as I was able to ran at my intended pace of closed to 5:00min/km. It was until at about 10km, very near the u-turn point before I felt tired running up, the pace was slow perhaps at about 5:30min/km? As I was tired I tried to divert my attention by looking at the scenic environment and I was lucky as I realised I was not too far away for to the u-turn back to the finishing line. I felt great, relieved and happy that I finally got over the toughest part of the race!

The journey down hill was more of a recovery from earlier exertion while I need to make sure that I do not over-paced myself and at the same time to run as fast as I could. I think I ran on average at about 4:30min/km downhill while for the remaining 2 - 4km on flat route it was about 4:45 - 4:50min/km. Hopefully the distance was right as I felt strong even up to the last 2km mark. Very soon with the the finishing line in sight I was surprise that the clock shows 1:46, I make a last attempt to over take the few runners ahead for a 1:46:54hr finish. It is a PB based on gun time, and it was more joy for me as I soon realized that my chip time actually shows 1:43:35 and best of all I achieved it with a negative splits!

It was a great run for me, felt encouraged as I am finally showing some progress after months of trainings 1)I felt that my uphill trainings (also uphill sprints) could be one of the factors that helps me coped well with the race. 2)The cold weather certainly plays a part too, so glad that it is now 2 PBs for year 2010 :) Hopefully I can get a hat trick soon :p

http://www.sportsnet.org.tw/score_101106_21.php

2010 Taroko 峽谷馬拉松 - 半程馬拉松成績

Pos	Regnr	Bibnr	Name	Category	FinishTime	RankAll	RankCat
110	1222	1144	吳向煌 (GOH HIONG HONG)	男30-39歲	01:43:35	110	34

Below are my splits starting from about 3km onwards. The distance and pace tracking might not be accurate due to loss of satellite signals at certain parts of the route, especially when going through tunnels.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
3	00:04:41	1.00	04:41
4	00:04:58	1.00	04:58
5	00:04:55	1.00	04:55
6	00:05:02	1.00	05:02
7	00:04:49	1.00	04:49
8	00:04:17	1.00	04:17
9	00:05:22	1.00	05:22
10	00:05:05	1.00	05:05
11	00:05:09	1.00	05:09
12	00:04:58	1.00	04:58
13	00:05:31	1.00	05:31
14	00:04:15	1.00	04:15
15	00:04:43	1.00	04:43
16	00:04:29	1.00	04:29
17	00:04:31	1.00	04:31
18	00:04:08	1.00	04:08
19	00:03:42	1.00	03:42
20	00:05:23	1.00	05:23
21	00:04:49	1.00	04:49
22	00:00:09	0.06	02:35
Summary	01:31:05	19.06	04:46